Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne resigned on Friday, four days after a Tunisian illegal immigrant killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels.
He told a news conference that Tunisia had requested Abdesalem Lassoued’s extradition in August of last year, but that it had not been followed up on.
“It’s an individual, monumental and unacceptable error,” he said, according to the Belga news agency. “The magistrate in question did not follow up this demand and the dossier was not treated,” he said.
“I am not looking for any excuses. I think it’s my duty” to resign, he said.
“This new information coming from the prosecutors hits me deeply as I have done everything possible to improve the judicial system”.
The 45-year-old attacker was fatally shot in a police operation on Tuesday.
According to official documents, Lassoued applied for refuge in Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Belgium. He had remained in Belgium illegally after his asylum application was denied in 2020.
Meanwhile, a suspect in the Brussels stabbings has been apprehended in France, according to a source close to the investigation.
According to the source, a man was arrested Thursday in the western Loire-Atlantique area.